Amazon In Legal Hot Water? Republican Senator Calls For Criminal Probe Of Company’s Data Practices

Amazon’s use of third-party seller data may land the e-commerce giant in legal hot water. On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called for a criminal investigation of Jeff Bezos’ company for potential “predatory and exclusionary data practices to build and maintain a monopoly.”

Hawley made the request in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. His accusations stemmed from a recent Wall Street Journal report which alleged that company employees have abused third-party seller data to develop Amazon-branded rival products.

“These practices are alarming for America’s small businesses even under ordinary circumstances,” Hawley argued in his letter. “But at a time when most small retail businesses must rely on Amazon because of coronavirus-related shutdowns, predatory data practices threaten these businesses’ very existence.”

The company previously denied using sales data from individual companies during a 2019 hearing with the House Antitrust Committee. However, documents obtained by the Journal coupled with interviews from former Amazon employees suggest that the company had been doing just that.

Amazon has denied the allegations, claiming that such actions would violate company policy, and has launched an investigation into the matter. Speaking with the Verge, a company spokesperson said that its employees are not allowed to use “seller-specific data” for the purposes of choosing which products to develop.

“It’s simply incorrect to suggest that Amazon was intentionally misleading in our testimony,” a spokesperson said in another statement to CNBC.

The Department of Justice has confirmed the receipt of Hawley’s letter and is currently reviewing its claims.

Elected in 2018, Hawley has made a habit of criticizing the practices of tech companies and taking them to task for potential privacy or antitrust violations. At 40, he is the youngest member of the Senate.

https://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-legal-hot-water-republican-senator-calls-criminal-probe-companys-data-2966539

Several civilians martyred in an explosion of a booby-trapped tanker truck in Efrin city

Aleppo, SANA-A number of civilians were martyred and injured in an explosion of a booby-trapped tanker truck in Efrin city in Aleppo northern countryside which also killed and injured many terrorists affiliated to the Turkish regime.

Local sources told SANA that a tanker truck, loaded with a big quantity of explosives, went off near a center for the mercenaries of the Turkish regime in one of the markets, killing a number of terrorists and injuring many others.

The explosion also claimed the lives of many civilians.

https://sana.sy/en/?p=190708

Large Explosion Rocks Afrin City Killing At Least 39 People (Photos, Video)

At least 39 people were killed and 50 others were wounded in a large explosion in the Turkish-occupied city of Afrin on April 28. The explosion was allegedly caused by an improvised explosive device installed on an oil tanker on the Raju road.

https://southfront.org/large-explosion-rocks-afrin-city-killing-at-least-39-people-photos-video/

Mike Stone – Satanists Playing Us Like a Fiddle

2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony Anticipates Pandemic including scenes of Medicos Dancing https://youtu.be/5krD8zJ6-bY

To pull off a hoax of this magnitude means millions of people have gone over to the dark side.

"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent." – J. Edgar Hoover ~The Elks Magazine, August 1956

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

Are we all being played?

Played on a scale beyond our wildest dreams? Let me take you on a journey, beginning with the 2012 Olympics. The opening ceremony was designed and coordinated by Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire.

One of the segments, ostensibly a tribute to the National Health Service (NHS), featured a stage filled with sick kids and hospital beds (Hmmm) and opened with the theme music from the movie The Exorcist. (What does satanic possession have to do with sick kids and hospital beds?)

https://www.henrymakow.com/2020/04/satanists-playing-us-like-a-fiddle.html

Flynn’s Former Lawyers Covington And Burling Turn Over Another Trove Of Docs, Again

Covington and Burling LLP, the former defense team for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, turned over thousands of more pages of documents to Flynn’s new defense team that should have been submitted more than a year ago. Last week, another batch of documents withheld by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Flynn was turned over to his defense that allegedly reveals that the retired three-star general did not commit any crimes, as suggested by Department of Justice prosecutors.

This new batch of voluminous documentation turned over by his former defense team – which includes emails, texts, voice messages, notebooks, handwritten notes and legal documents – amounted to approximately 6,800 additional documents bringing the total amount of documents to roughly 669,800, along with attachments.

In early April, Flynn’s former law firm revealed to the court that it had discovered emails and handwritten notes that were not turned in with the original batch of millions of documents that were required by the court to be turned over last year. At the time, they suggested the delay was due to technical issues since being ordered by the presiding federal judge six months ago to turn over all documents.

At the time, presiding Federal Judge Emmet T. Sullivan, ordered the law firm to ‘promptly turn over the entire file’ on Flynn to his new defense attorney Sidney Powell. That order was made under threat of a hearing before the District of Columbia Ethics Counsel. The law firm turned over what is described as a ‘voluminous’ amount of documents but it apparently wasn’t all the documents. In early April the law firm hinted in its supplemental notice filed with the court that there may even be more documents still to be produced.

Powell told this reporter Tuesday that she is astonished that Covington and Burling LLP had failed to locate the documents earlier and just now turned over another voluminous batch to her team.

“The Flynn defense is stunned that Covington and Burling has only now found thousands of additional documents amounting to more than 17,000 pages that should have been produced to the defense almost a year ago,” she stated. Powell, who has been battling for documents from the Department of Justice as well, said the enormity of documents withheld from Flynn’s defense is proof of the misconduct against her client.

Powell obtained the new information from the DOJ after an extensive review by attorneys appointed by U.S. Attorney General William Barr to review Flynn’s case. Barr’s team included United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, along with prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen. The documented evidence Powell said will exonerate Flynn was delivered to Powell but is under court seal.

https://saraacarter.com/flynns-former-lawyers-covington-and-burling-turn-over-another-trove-of-docs-again/

Leaked Video Reveals Pentagon Briefing On Development Of Vaccine To Modify Human Behavior

The video below was allegedly filmed during a presentation in the Pentagon in 2005. It has been circulating online since at least 2013. Now, it is being shares as a Pentagon presentation by Bill Gates. It is hard to confirm that the presenter is Bill Gates as its clamed. Nonetheless, the fact of the research and development (R&D) works under the patronage of the US Department of Defense is enough by itself. Furthermore, these R&D works, which led to some results in 2005 already, reveal the distorted psychology of a part of the US elites. Even now, in 2020, the scientific society shares the view that despite the mapping on the human genome, we still know very little about the mechanisms of how various arrangement of chromosomes impact a person. The humanity still cannot fight genetic diseases. It is a scary thought that the military provides a cover for experiments and researches in the field of using vaccines to modify the human behavior and other projects of this kind.

It’s unlikely that the current COVID-19 pandemic is a result of these researches. Nonetheless, the current situation provides a broader look at the concerns of a major part of the world society regarding the mandatory implementation of ‘anti-COVID-19’ vaccines developed by international pharmaceutical corporations linked to the global financial elites.

https://southfront.org/leaked-video-reveals-pentagon-briefing-on-development-of-vaccine-to-modify-human-behavior/

Leaked Video Reveals Pentagon Briefing On Development Of Vaccine To Modify Human Behavior

The video below was allegedly filmed during a presentation in the Pentagon in 2005. It has been circulating online since at least 2013. Now, it is being shares as a Pentagon presentation by Bill Gates. It is hard to confirm that the presenter is Bill Gates as its clamed. Nonetheless, the fact of the research and development (R&D) works under the patronage of the US Department of Defense is enough by itself. Furthermore, these R&D works, which led to some results in 2005 already, reveal the distorted psychology of a part of the US elites. Even now, in 2020, the scientific society shares the view that despite the mapping on the human genome, we still know very little about the mechanisms of how various arrangement of chromosomes impact a person. The humanity still cannot fight genetic diseases. It is a scary thought that the military provides a cover for experiments and researches in the field of using vaccines to modify the human behavior and other projects of this kind.

It’s unlikely that the current COVID-19 pandemic is a result of these researches. Nonetheless, the current situation provides a broader look at the concerns of a major part of the world society regarding the mandatory implementation of ‘anti-COVID-19’ vaccines developed by international pharmaceutical corporations linked to the global financial elites.

https://southfront.org/leaked-video-reveals-pentagon-briefing-on-development-of-vaccine-to-modify-human-behavior/

Khalifa Haftar Announces Shkeirat Agreements Are Dead, Military Will Govern The Country

On April 27th, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army made a televised address to the nation.

Statements such as this from him are rare, and this is the second one he does in less than 7 days.

In short, all prospects for a political solution in Libya are mostly dead and buried.

In his appeal, Haftar announced the breakdown of the Shkeirat Agreements of 2015, which became the basis for the creation of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and the beginning of peace negotiations between the parties to the conflict.

Haftar said that in accordance with the wishes of the people, the Libyan army takes on the role of governing the country and promised to free the country from terrorists.

“Free Libyans! We pay tribute to you for your solidarity with and support for your armed forces and the renewal of your trust in its commander, officers, and soldiers while they proceed with their continuous victories to liberate the country from terrorism.

The armed forces could not have achieved these victories without the trust of the Libyan people, due to the sacrifices of your officers and soldiers with their lives and blood, to ensure the safety of the country and for Libyans to live free on their own soil.

Free Libyans! We have followed up your response to our call to you to announce the fall of the Political Agreement, which has destroyed the country and led it to the abyss, and to authorize those you consider eligible to lead this stage.”

Haftar essentially said that the military would take control of the country’s governance, and not he, himself, specifically as MSM would suggest:

“We express our honor to the Libyan people for authorizing the General Command to undertake this historic mission under the current exceptional circumstances, and their revocation of the Political Agreement to be part of the past according to the decision of the Libyan people—the source of all authority. We thus announce that the General Command of the Armed Forces accepts the will of the people despite the burden of that trust, multiplicity of obligations, and the magnitude of responsibilities before God, our people, and conscience and history.

We shall always remain at the disposal of the Libyan people and will not spare any effort to stop their suffering. Serving the citizens, protecting their rights, realizing their hopes and aspirations, and harnessing all the resources for the exigencies of the public good—shall always be our foremost priority. We will work towards creating the conditions for building durable institutions of the civil state according to the will and ambitions of the Libyan people while completing the march of liberation until full success is achieved, God Willing!”

Haftar “no longer seeks to conceal his ontempt for a political solution and democracy in Libya,” GNA adviser Mohammed Ali Abdallah was quoted as saying in response.

Mohammed Ali Abdallah, further said:

“Haftar has once more exposed his authoritarian intentions to the world. He no longer seeks to conceal his contempt for a political solution and democracy in Libya.”

The Government of National Accord itself issued the following statement in response:

“The obsession with power and stupidity has reached its full limit. He announces a new coup, thereby complementing the series of first-timers in which he took part since ancient times. This step of the war criminal did not surprise us at all. This was expected in light of the failure of his adventure to capture the capital the Rebel [Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar] even opposed those who supported him all these years …

We appeal to all members of the House of Representatives to join their colleagues in Tripoli in order to start a comprehensive dialogue on the road to democracy and solve everything through the ballot box. We extend a hand to all the deceived sons of Libya, especially in the east, so that they know about the true intention of the aggressor, who seeks power at their expense, blood and souls. Once again, we urge them to lay down their arms and take the right side.”

https://southfront.org/khalifa-haftar-announces-shkeirat-agreements-are-dead-military-will-govern-the-country/

Supreme Court Puts Government On the Hook for $12 Billion in Obamacare Payments

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the federal government is on the hook for billions in payments to health insurers who sold coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

The eight to one decision clears the way for insurers to collect upwards of $12 billion via an Obamacare program designed to help insurers manage risks they took by participating in ACA exchanges. Congress has refused to appropriate federal money for the program since 2014, leaving insurers in the lurch.

The decision is a blow to congressional Republicans and the Trump administration, who say the program is little more than a bailout for insurance companies who made hazardous business decisions. Unable to repeal the law in full, Republicans have attacked the ACA in piecemeal fashion, withholding the risk payments in Monday’s case and canceling payments to health insurers that subsidize care for low-income clients. Monday’s decision marks another failed Republican attempt to undermine the health care law.

At issue in the case is the so-called risk corridor program. The insurers who joined the ACA exchanges faced uncertainty immediately after the health care law passed and extended coverage to millions of previously uninsured and people with preexisting conditions. The risk corridors set up a system for sharing profits and losses: Companies who finished ahead would pay a portion of their profits to the government while insurers who finished behind could collect payments from the government to offset losses.

The trouble for the program was that costs greatly exceeded payments. In its first year, for example, the government collected $362 million from insurers who finished ahead, but owed those who finished behind $2.87 billion. That gap grew in the remaining two years of the program.

Congress refused to make up the difference. In turn, the insurance companies sued the government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, accusing the government of "a massive bait and switch."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the High Court’s opinion, saying the Obamacare law required the government to make risk corridor payments.

"These holdings reflect a principle as old as the nation itself: the government should honor its obligations," Sotomayor wrote. She warned that governments that dodge their financial engagements will not be trusted or respected.

https://freebeacon.com/courts/supreme-court-puts-government-on-the-hook-for-12-billion-in-obamacare-payments/

Up for a New Cold War — With China?

Why did Americans, after a 40-year struggle with another “Evil Empire,” ever believe differently about the Communist Party of China? Under the code of that party, the morality of an act is determined by whether it advances or retards the goals of the regime: expansion, conquest and domination.

Is America, in lockdown, with 26 million unemployed and entering a new depression, up for a confrontation and Cold War with China?

For that appears to be where the GOP wishes to lead us.

According to Politico, a 57-page memo from Mitch McConnell’s senatorial committee instructs GOP candidates to blame the coronavirus pandemic on China, commit to stand up to China, end U.S. dependence on Chinese manufacturing and tell voters “my opponent is soft on China.”

“China is not an ally, and they’re not just a rival — they are an adversary and the Chinese Communist Party is our enemy,” reads one of the talking points.

Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas echoed the memo, charging that China’s leaders wanted the coronavirus to spread because they “did not want to see their relative power and standing in the world decline.”

Cotton went on: “It’s a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese communists. If Chinese students want to come here and learn Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers — that’s what they need to learn from America; they don’t need to learn quantum computing and artificial intelligence from America.”

The Wall Street Journal ran back-to-back editorials last week urging a more confrontational stance toward Beijing and endorsing GOP plans for new defense spending on U.S. air and naval forces in the Western Pacific.

Cotton and the Journal are not wrong in their characterization of China’s behavior. It is belligerent toward its neighbors and hostile toward the United States.

China has indeed sent student-spies to study at U.S. universities.

Under cover of the coronavirus crisis, Beijing is moving to strip the 7 million people of Hong Kong of the rights they were guaranteed when the British departed. The Uighurs of Xinjiang are being persecuted and coercively cleansed of their cultural and religious beliefs.

The Peoples Liberation Army seeks to intimidate Taiwan by sending military aircraft near the island. China’s warships have harassed Vietnamese, Malaysian, Philippine and Indonesian commercial vessels to assert its claim to the entire South China Sea.

Chinese propagandists have accused the U.S. of creating the coronavirus crisis that broke out in Wuhan last winter.

https://buchanan.org/blog/up-for-a-new-cold-war-with-china-138493

UN Chief Says Pandemic Must Be Used To Deindustrialize West, Transition To Green Energy

The head of the United Nations called for global leaders to “use the pandemic recovery” to roll out their global climate change agenda, including allowing fossil fuel companies to collapse and using taxpayer stimulus money to fund green jobs.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said during the Petersberg Virtual Dialogue, a two-day international conference on global warming, in Berlin, Germany that the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic presents a “rare and short window of opportunity” to accelerate their globalist 2030 Agenda project.

“It has exposed the fragility of our societies and economies to shocks,” Guterres said Tuesday, adding that “the only answer is brave, visionary and collaborative leadership.”

“The same leadership is needed to address the looming existential threat of climate disruption,” he continued. “These are dark days, but they are not without hope. We have a rare and short window of opportunity to rebuild our world for the better.”

“Let us use the pandemic recovery to provide a foundation for a safe, healthy, inclusive and more resilient world for all people.”

Guterres insisted that U.S. taxpayer stimulus packages must be used to create “green jobs” instead of “bailing out” the energy sector.

“Where taxpayers’ money is used to rescue businesses, it must be creating green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth,” he said. “It must not be bailing out outdated, polluting, carbon-intensive industries.”

Guterres also took a veiled swipe at nationalism and the United States, suggesting that national sovereignty doesn’t trump the need to fight climate change.

“The Paris Agreement was largely made possible by the engagement of the United States and China,” Guterres said. “Without the contribution of the big emitters, all our efforts will be doomed.”

“Like the coronavirus, greenhouse gases respect no boundaries,” he added. “Isolation is a trap. No country can succeed alone.”

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/76891/un-chief-says-pandemic-must-be-used-to-deindustrialize-west-transition-to-green.html

VP Mike Pence Tours Mayo Clinic Without Mask Despite Institution’s Pandemic Policy

US Vice President Mike Pence ignored the Mayo Clinic’s masking policy during his Tuesday visit to the health institution in Rochester, Minnesota, to learn more about COVID-19 testing as part of his White House Coronavirus Task Force duties.

Photos and videos of Pence visiting the clinic without a mask have been circulating on Twitter. Other people in the room with Pence, including US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and US Representative Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) can all be seen wearing masks.

Earlier this month, the academic medical center began requiring all people on campus to wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a tweet Tuesday, the Mayo Clinic said it had notified the vice president of its masking policy before he arrived at the institution, but that tweet was deleted shortly after being published.

A photo of the vice president praying with other members of the Coronavirus Task Force in March resulted in widespread criticism of the US’ response to the crisis.

https://sputniknews.com/viral/202004281079126216-video-mike-pence-tours-mayo-clinic-without-mask-despite-institutions-pandemic-policy/

WHO Issues Correction Following Misleading Tweet on Immunity in Recovered COVID-19 Patients

After being accused of misleading the public, the World Health Organization (WHO) has walked back a newsworthy statement which claimed there was “no evidence” that patients who have recovered from the COVID-19 novel coronavirus will be resistant to a future infection.

A scientific brief on “‘Immunity passports’ in the context of COVID-19” was published by the WHO on Friday which pushed back against the idea that individuals with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes COVID-19 - could be granted a type of “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate” by their governments, allowing them to travel or go back to work.

“As of 24 April 2020, no study has evaluated whether the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 confers immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in humans,” noted the WHO.

However, the agency’s social media team did not provide this context in a since-deleted tweet which simply stated, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from [COVID-19] and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.” Though this statement is correct, it’s to be expected that there is not yet verified evidence of such an immunity to the novel coronavirus, as it is only a few months old.

The WHO highlighted the infamous tweet in a follow-up thread which better explained its statement on immunity.

Despite the WHO’s attempt to clear up the confusion on the following day, outlets had already picked up and disseminated the tweet alongside ominous headlines, like Bloomberg News’ "WHO Warns You May Catch Coronavirus More Than Once.”

Social media users also admonished the agency in the hours the tweet remained up.

“WHO needs to improve its communication on this. When they say ‘no evidence’ they mean something like ‘no definitive proof, yet,’” statistician Nate Silver said in an April 25 Twitter post quoting the tweet in question. “But the average person is going to read it as ‘there’s no immunity to coronavirus’, which is likely false and not a good summation of the evidence.”

Twitter user Dylan Morris went a step further in chiding the WHO, arguing that the initial statement was “false” and “irresponsible.”

The WHO later thanked a number of individuals, including Silver and Morris, for their “constructive input.”

“We expect that most people who are infected with [COVID-19] will develop an antibody response that will provide some level of protection,” the WHO said on Saturday via Twitter.

“What we don't yet know is the level of protection or how long it will last. We are working with scientists around the world to better understand the body's response to [COVID-19] infection. So far, no studies have answered these important questions.”

https://sputniknews.com/world/202004281079125691-who-issues-correction-following-misleading-tweet-on-immunity-in-recovered-covid-19-patients-/